InfoPrint Launches International Innovation Center

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Press release from the issuing company

Shanghai, China -- InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, has today launched its regional Printing Innovation Center based in Shanghai, China. The 10,000 square-foot around facility, representing an initial investment of US$5 million (about RMB34 million), demonstrates InfoPrint’s strong commitment to the continued expansion of the company’s capabilities in the Asia Pacific market.

This new facility is equipped with state-of-the-art capabilities designed to deliver previously unseen high-value-added services and solutions to customers in China and throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

“Our decision to proceed with our investment plans in Asia Pacific during this extremely challenging economic climate is supported by our strong confidence of the market readiness for InfoPrint’s award-winning solutions, particularly those solutions built around our industry-leading color production printing technology,” said Tony Romero, President and CEO, InfoPrint Solutions Company, who opened the center in Shanghai today. “Through this strategic investment, InfoPrint Solutions aims to enable customers and business partners from around the region to collaborate on the development and testing of next-generation output management solutions, which are focused on generating competitive advantage for our clients, along with significantly improved cost effectiveness,” added Mr. Romero.

Located in the Jinqiao Export Processing Zone in Pudong, Shanghai, the Printing Innovation Center showcases comprehensive solutions for production centers, workgroup and industrial environments in areas such as TransPromo, Fleet Management, Workflow, Productivity and RFID logistics, Color Books on Demand and Personalized Mailing. Innovation, Enablement and Transition are the three customer-centric objectives of the center.

“With the Printing Innovation Center, we aim to accelerate innovation for diverse client challenges and developing markets from around the region. By collaborating with our partners, we will focus on solving critical issues with an emphasis on the end user as we work towards business leadership with innovative technologies,” said Benoit Chatelard, Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific, InfoPrint Solutions Company. “Our Software and Professional Services offerings will be available for demonstration and testing at the Innovation Center, which will be staffed by highly skilled subject matter experts.”

With well-equipped showrooms, executive briefing centers and classroom-style offices, the Printing Innovation Center provides a workspace for about 30 local R&D engineers and employees who offer a spectrum of industry-oriented expertise to share ideas, offer consultancy and enable customers and partners to innovate and transition to new applications and technologies. Customers and partners can see demonstration of leading edge solutions and make proof-of-concept, testing and sampling at the center, which will conduct training and seminars.

“China’s enterprises have the home advantage of the Shanghai-based Printing Innovation Center,” said Sean Wu, General Manager of Greater China, InfoPrint Solutions Company. “With China as a top global economic powerhouse, Chinese enterprises are transitioning into world-class global operations. Customer relationship management, business intelligence and data mining, personalization of customer services and outreach, and overall workflow efficiency through technology deployment are being keenly deployed to make that business transformation. The Printing Innovation Center offers an important technology and application resource to enable Chinese enterprises to innovate, transition and transform.”